I think that's exactly what he is saying...The story got picked up and reported even without a source. I don't know if you can qualify Wise as a source since he is more of a columnist than a reporter.

Just because he's focused more on his columns now doesn't mean he's not a reporter. He's been a reporter for major media (NY Times, Washington Post) for over 15 years. He put himself out there as representing the Washington Post, and as someone with access to information that not many have. I can't find any excuse in what he did.

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Well based off his credentials I think tagging him as a reporter is correct, and I agree that what he did was irresponsible, wrong and inexcuseable because he represents the Post and it's bad publicity but he did prove his point about social media networks. IMO

Well based off his credentials I think tagging him as a reporter is correct, and I agree that what he did was irresponsible, wrong and inexcuseable because he represents the Post and it's bad publicity but he did prove his point about social media networks. IMO

I don't even know if I have the feature on my phone. I dam sure not going to sit there myself and push all those little letters to send a text when I can just pick up the phone and actually have a conversation with the person.

I don't even know if I have the feature on my phone. I dam sure not going to sit there myself and push all those little letters to send a text when I can just pick up the phone and actually have a conversation with the person.

You've never wanted to simply get a quick answer, or say a quick note, without having to have a whole conversation about it. For example, a text saying I'll be 10 minutes late, is a lot easier than a call that prompts a 15 minute conversation on why you will be 10 minutes late.

As for Wise, it was poorly planned and executed, but the point he was making has some validity.

In today's rat race of sports reporting, Wise undoubtedly got caught up in that never ending anxiety to be a first and it cost him dearly. No excuses, lesson learned.

He wasn't trying to be first though. He was just trying to prove a point. A point which he, as an official member of the sports media representing himself as such is simply unqualified to make.

I mean I get the point he was trying to make, we saw it to some extent when some Saints fan updated Andre Carter's wikipedia page to say he had been traded to New Orleans for a 3rd rounder. Or, perhaps more close to home, I once posted here that I had heard but not could not confirm that Trent Williams had agreed to a contract and it was just undergoing customary league approval. Someone here tweeted that news and it spread across message boards like wildfire. Turns out my info was wrong (premature). Official media, however, took both the Carter report and the TW report and said basically "looking into it, nothing confirmed, have not heard anything" or "we have not heard this"

But there's a greater expectation, or at least should be, when someone like Mike Wise shares information than when say GoSkinsSBXXII does. If Mike Wise was wrong about something, that's one thing. When he deliberately tries to mislead, that's completely another.

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There is a world of difference in getting a story wrong and making stuff up that was never true in the first place. Wise did the latter. In journalism there is no excuse for that.

A stunt such as the one he pulled is something one might expect from a young kid early in his/her career working at a small-time outfit. Wise is not a young inexperienced kid and he is working at a newspaper that is clearly one of the ten best in the US.

Plagiarism will get reporters/columnists fired. So will making stuff up - - see Jayson Blair and Janet Cooke (who made up stuff in a Wash Post feature, won a Pulitzer Prize for it and then had the fabrication discovered). Mike Wise walked a VERY fine line here in terms of keeping his job at the Post. Even the Post ombudsman said he was lucky not to have been fired.

Interestingly, if this kind of ethical breech had occurred in a government agency, the Post would probably be leading the parade calling for heads to roll. But when it is one of their "star writers"...

__________________ The Sports Curmudgeon
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